Construction time again

Mihai and his maternal grandmother, Eufrosina, circa 1978.

From September to June, Mihai and his brother lived in Craiova with Pia and Silviu but from June to September, the boys stayed with their maternal grandmother in her house in Viștea. (I'm including a map for some reference since I understand that it's hard to find Romania on a globe, much less figure out the location of Oltenia in relation to Transylvania.)

For reference, we are currently in Obedin which is just outside of Craiova. Viștea is between Sibiu and Brașov.

Contrary to the impression he might give, Mihai has a very sentimental nature and the memories of both his grandmother, and the years spent in her house, hold a special place in his heart. 

After his grandmother died, the property was never really maintained, at least not with the care and attention she had given it. Over the years, we would stop by and check on things and invariably, Mihai would leave in a depressed funk over the state of disrepair.  

His aunt, Dița, would occasionally stay there, but she had an apartment in another city so visits were rare and she had no inclination to maintain the property.

During the last years of her life, Dița moved to Viştea but sadly, she was suffering from alcoholic encephalopathy and if anything, the condition of the house and property got worse. 

A couple of years ago, Dița died and Mihai inherited the property. But once again it sat, almost entirely abandoned. It was a blight to the neighborhood which felt unfair to the community since, as you can see below, they put time and energy into maintaining their homes quite nicely. 

We couldn't just continue status quo, something had to be done. Enter plans A, B, and C.

Plan A was to sell it, but sentimentality overrode plan A. 

In sentimentality's favor, however, is the fact that the location of Viștea is ideal. 

For one thing, it's at the base of the Carpathian mountains which means the summers are cooler―a lovely break from the sweltering humidity of the southern plain. 

Another plus is that they have municipal water, sewage, and gas, none of which exist in the house in Obedin. 

In addition, it's close to Sibiu which is not only our favorite city in Romania, but also the stopping point for every trip we make to Budapest (and you know we make a lot of trips to Budapest). Instead of staying in Hotel Ibis, we reasoned, we could stay in Viștea when we travel. 

Plan B thus involved converting a closet into a shower and fixing the ceiling and walls in the kitchen so that it could be functional. (It also was going to involve a great deal of cleaning, but is that simply stating the obvious?)

However, once the contractors started working, plan B fell apart. Quite literally. The house fell down. (Did I mention it had not been maintained?)

On to plan C. We now had a blank slate and Mihai found a house plan we thought would work, then the contractor switched from a remodel to a brand new construction. 

Let me be clear: we do not need a second house and had plan B not failed, I would be thoroughly delighted with what was going to essentially be a barn with a toilet and a stove. 

But plan B did fail, and plan A is not something Mihai could handle emotionally.

So here we are.

On a clearer day, you can see the snow on the Carpathian Mountains from our house. Alas, it was not a clear day.

Sentimentality aside, the second best thing I can say about this new house is that I know some of you express (you might not say it with words but I can read your non-verbal cues) a reluctance to visit us in Obedin given the lack of municipal water, bad roads, and general chaos that surrounds us here. I understand.

The last time I checked, neither Obedin (nor Oltenia for that matter), showed up on any "Top 100 Places to Travel" lists. 

However, most people hold at least some romantic notions of Transylvania and it's my hope that the exotic local, running water, and good climate will be sufficient to push anyone hesitating to make the trip. My hope is that, at last, people might actually come and visit us. (A quick shout out to Griffin and Logan who were brave enough to make the trip in 2018.)

Before we head back to California, we'll make at least one more trip to Viștea but since I don't really want this to become a construction blog (the two very, very long posts about the ADU come to mind), this will be the only post dealing with the house. 

Unless everyone is clamoring for photos of concrete and stories of abandoned property? 

I thought not.

Likely no one is really clamoring for photos and stories of Sibiu, either. We've been there too many times for long-time readers to be thrilled with that city. 

But we're still dealing with the pandemic and in the interests of safety and responsibility, we're just not going to do that much traveling. So you'll get Sibiu and Obedin and maybe Horezu and Vaideeni. 

Just be glad it's not Budapest.